Each winter, just after Valentine’s Day and before the Bouquets to Art celebration at the de Young Museum, I close my studio for 2 weeks and journey to, fro, and within Washington State, as well as many points in between. Safe but lively travel through snowy mountain passes, Pinot Noir sipping and procurement in the Willamette Valley, brisk walks in Ashland, Oregon to admire the numerous stands of fully bloomed witch hazel trees, and an abundance of rest, reflection, planning, sketching are amongst the highlights. The best part, however, is time with my family and friends, back “home.”

This year’s trip furthered one of Kate’s current capital projects, a brand new, stylish, one-of-a-kind Wedding Arch-Chuppah. This wedding piece is comprised of four extremely heavy and solid iron stands, with a wide variety of poles, for both indoor and outdoor nuptials. We have just completed the first set of poles, four “tops” of a very large maple tree that fell in a windstorm on my brother’s beach. My brother and his chainsaw cut the best pieces into 9’ structures, where we configured and secured the tiny branches, into the main tree. These Four Tops will welcome flower and vine décor, as well as a couple’s Tallit, a prayer cloth across the top of the structure. Or, we will style flowers into an arch or trellis for a garden wedding. This project, still is new and in its baby steps. We will soon share photos of this structure, decorated and enjoyed, at our weddings this year.

Return to the studio took us right into the 2012 Bouquets to Art, de Young museum. This year’s floral installation interpreted “Still Life with Crabs on a Pewter Plate” by Abraham Mignon,1669-1672. My two sisters-in-law joined us for our yearly hoovala at the opening night gala, and, three generations of family traveled to the Bay Area, where I, one of four generations present that day, enjoyed them so.

The photographs which follow, show our family details, well.

Posted with fond thanks, gratitude, and with all my love, Kathleen